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Richard Gill's avatar

Sex sells movies, especially to sexually suppressed Anglo-Saxon people. No movie is complete without a sex scene. Forbidden sex is more exciting and interesting than routine unforbidden sex.

Gavin McKinley's avatar

I have chronic, daily mild to moderate migraines. On the left side, I get throbbing pain in my temple, lower jaw, cheek, ear and eye. These symptoms are indicative of trigeminal nerve involvement and are typical migraine symptoms. Many of your symptoms sound like migraine including photophobia. I also get neck pain, but in a different location (base). However, I have never heard of vision problems other than the classic aura, so your situation sounds unusual.

I wonder if numbing the nasal pain is somehow turning off trigeminal nerve activation? Migraine treatments that target the trigeminal nerve might help. I have tried an eTNS (external Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation) device called Cefaly II with only limited success - its efficacy began to wear off after a few months. There are other devices such as the prescription only gammaCore using tVNS (transcutaneous Vagal Nerve Stimulation). It is quite expensive, but the company makes a similar non-prescription device called Truvaga.

Then there are the migraine medications. Given that your symptoms are chronic, acute medications like Sumatriptan are of limited use. I have tried some of the standard preventative medications such as Amitriptyline, Propanolol and Candesartan without success. There are newer generation drugs tailored specifically for migraine, which target the trigeminal CGRP (Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide) pathway such as Rimegepant or monoclonal antibodies (Emgality, Ajovy). However, these are expensive, and on the UK NHS at least, are only prescribed after at least 3 of the older standard meds have been tried and failed.

Looking away from allopathic medicine, have you considered homeopathy or acupuncture? These are on my list of things to try.

While my migraines are constant, I have no vision involvement, and so consider myself fortunate. I really hope that you have stumbled upon a way out of your health problems. There is a saying, " A healthy man wants a thousand things; a sick man only wants one ". You deserve good health.

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